This has more mutations than any  other variant that's been seen and  

a number of the mutations are on the  spike protein, so that's what really  

is raising people's anxiety level. Whether it's  the mRNA vaccines or the J&J vaccine or  

some of the protein vaccines that may come  down later, they're all focused on targeting  

and developing an immune response to the spike  protein, and spike is what attaches to the cells  

too, so that probably, well definitely, relates  to transmissibility, so mutations in the spike  

can increase transmissibility  and also potentially increase  

the ability for the virus to avoid antibodies  made by the vaccine. We have no clear idea whether  

the vaccines will be equally effective or not, but  I think the argument would be that we know that  

there's a potential that it might not be and that  the higher your antibody concentrations are, the  

more likely it is to be able to work and so if you  haven't gotten a booster, you need to get boosted.

So the clinical presentation is going to be  the same, right? COVID-19 is COVID-19, and so  

it's going to present identically,

I think we just all are trying to make our  way through the days, I mean this is now  

going almost on two years of COVID and so I  don't think you're going to feel much different. 

We still have a significant amount of  transmission that's occurring in Sacramento  

due to the Delta variance so I'm not necessarily  expecting anything to change significantly.

We'll just have to see. I think people should be

thoughtful but not necessarily concerned, right? I  think that people should be watchful about what's  

happening. I think you're still looking at making  sure that you've got a booster dose of vaccine  

or if you haven't been vaccinated, get  vaccinated, and then consider  

minimizing exposures to big  large groups unless it's outdoors.

So the most important thing about  Omicron is that it continues to be  

the evolution of COVID-19. The more people that  get infected, the more likely we are to see more  

variants come back behind it and so again this is  a message to get people vaccinated, right?  

Right now, the unvaccinated population is  really keeping the whole pandemic moving along.

You're not going to see the  number of breakthrough cases

if people are all vaccinated, right? Because that's  the way you finally crush this and we're just not  

really at a level within our population. We're pretty darn good here at UC Davis,  

but within the population at large, we're not  at a level where we can really stop spread and  

every time the virus infects somebody else, there's a chance for more mutations and if  

those mutations are beneficial to the virus,  they're going to keep taking off and so  

the more people infected, the more likely there  are going to be... we're going to have to learn the  

whole darn Greek alphabet. The public should  know that staying vigilant is a good thing  

and getting vaccinated if you're not is a good  thing. That's ultimately the way out of this thing.